Maple/Drake Expansion
A Definite Possibility
RUTH LITTMANN STAFF WRITER
Parents React
To Hillel Contribution
Mixed feelings are expressed about stipulations on a
S5 million Hillel contribution.
JILL DAVIDSON SKLAR STAFF WRITER
I
he Jewish Federation of
Metropolitan Detroit is
considering future devel-
opment of the Maple/
Drake Jewish Community
Campus.
Federation officials insist
that nothing is certain. How-
ever, a steering committee has
formed to determine which
Jewish agencies (if any) will ex-
pand onto 45 undeveloped
acres. Earlier this year, profes-
sional land planners divided
these acres into four different
sites.
"We have to decide whether'
we want to allocate (for devel-
opment) all the sites, some of
the sites or none of the sites,"
said Robert Aronson, Federa-
tion executive vice president.
Development of the Maple/
Drake campus could mean the
inclusion of a day school and
skilled nursing facility for the
frail elderly.
Currently, the acres of al-
ready developed land are oc
cupied by the Jewish
Community Center, Holocaust
Memorial Center, Fleischman
Residence and Hechtman Fed-
eration Apartments, as well as
the outdoor Camp Ruth day-
camp facility.
Representatives from the
Jewish Federation and Unit-
ed Jewish Foundation, which
owns the land, say develop-
ment considerations do not
result from a.recently pro-
posed donation to Hillel Day
School. The private donation
would make $5 million avail-
able if the school relocates to
the Maple/Drake campus.
Much of the Maple/Drake
land was purchased in the mid-
1960s. The JCC was built .in
1973. Development stalled that
year, due to the Yom Kippur
War, and a significant portion
of unused land was "ware-
housed" for future development
as the Jewish community grad,
ually moved into the north-
western suburbs.
Last spring, Federation and
the Foundation charged a pro-
fessional planning firm and lay-
driven committee with the
responsibility of surveying the
Maple/Drake grounds to deter-
mine what type infrastructure
could go where.
"For many years, we didn't
know what was on that prop-
erty," Mr. Aronson said.
About three weeks ago, the
committee delivered its report
to the Federation and Founda-
tion. The committee deter-
mined that, apart from
woodlands and wetlands, the
Maple/ Drake campus has 45
acres with development poten-
tial.
A new committee, co-chaired
by Allan Nachman and Robert
Slatkin, will evaluate which
agencies are best suited for pos-
sible location at the
Maple/Drake campus. They
stress, however, that nothing
Hillel were to relocate there,
students could take advantage
of athletic and cultural facili-
ties at the JCC.
"We have to meet in com-
mittee to discuss the ad-
vantages and disadvantages of
the uses of the site by different
agencies, including Hillel," Mr.
Nachman said. "There is no fait
accompli. These are all just
dreams."
The Federation and the
Foundation have not yet as-
signed a cost to the possible ex-
pansion, but they say they're
There is no
fait accompli."
-- Allan Nachman
Above: Robert Slatkin.
Left: Allan Nachman.
has been predetermined. In the
next six months, their commit-
tee will meet with agency
representatives, as well as
West Bloomfield Township
planners, to work on solidifying
a long-term vision for the prop-
erty.
Mark Davidoff, Federation's
chief financial officer, said it is
unclear if zoning changes will
be needed.
Mr. Slatkin, who has experi-
ence on the board of the Foun-
dation, and Mr. Nachman, who
chairs Federation's planning
and allocation steering com-
mittee, believe that an ex-
panded Maple/ Drake campus
could offer an opportunity for
"synergism." If, for instance,
working on it.
"We want to be ready for the
community," Mr. Slatkin said.
"We want to be out in front of
any future requirements of the
agencies.
"In my opinion," he said "the
Jewish community has two an-
chors. One is Huntington
Woods and the Ten Mile Road
area. The other is the
Maple/Drake campus. We just
invested a great deal of money
into the (expansion of the) Oak
Park JCC and now we're study-
ing the Maple/Drake campus
very carefully.
"Both ends of the communi-
ty are important to us — and
all the areas in between." [11
W
hen Elaine Webber
read that Hillel Day
School is studying a
move to the Maple/
Drake campus of the Jewish
Community Center, she was so
upset she almost cried.
Along with her husband, Bar-
ry Chesterman, the Huntington
Woods resident has given their
5-year-old son, Benjamin, a Jew-
ish upbringing since he was 4
months old.
First, it was the infant care at
Temple Emanu-El, then it was
two years in the nursery school
at Congregation Shaarey Zedek,
then back to Temple Emanu-El
for kindergarten.
'We didn't want to bounce him
from religious schooling to pub-
lic schooling back to religious
schooling. We wanted to send
him to a Jewish kindergarten as
preparation for Hillel," said Ms.
Webber, a former Hillel student.
"I don't know what we are going
to do if they move."
She is not alone.
Many parents of future and
current Hillel students, mostly
those who live in the areas south-
east of the school's Middlebelt
and Northwestern Highway site,
are concerned about a potential
S5 million contribution which car-
ries a stipulation that the school
move to the Maple/Drake cam-
pus.
.
The school is assembling a
committee of parents, leaders and
administrators to study the fea-
sibility of the relocation stipula-
tion. A decision is expected in
early 1995.
In the meantime, parents re-
acted with mixed feelings at the
news of the proposed donation.
Some were upset that the
school to which they aspired to
send their children may move,
creating a longer driving time
during the school year, most of .
which takes place during Michi-
gan's severe winters.
Huntington Woods residents
Deborah Salinger and Jonathan
Falk always wanted their 5-year-
old daughter Marnina to go to the
Conservative day school but are
now looking at other options.
"We had fully intended to
make the sacrifices necessary to
give her a Hillel education but
there is no way I will drive her to
Maple and Drake," she said.
"Half of the academic year we
are dealing with snow, sleet and
ice. That is not safe," Ms. Salinger
said. "It raises a huge safety con-
cern."
- Others felt that the move
would cut off a significant part of
the Jewish community, namely
Oak Park, Southfield and Hunt-
ington Woods families who would
have to drive about 20 extra min-
utes one way to reach the pro-
posed location.
Ms. Webber said she knows 20
children from her area who at-
tend the school and many more
who hope to send their children
to Hillel.
"I settled in Huntington
Woods, which is a solidly Jewish
area. I never thought it would not
be an option for me to send my
child to a Jewish day school," she
said. "It would not be an option if
Hillel moves."
Paul Levine, an Oak Park par-
ent of two students and one
graduate, questioned the motives
of the contributor, Oakland Mall
owner and developer Jay Kogan,
who asked for such a major
change.
"I have a big problem with con-
tributors who say they care about
Jewish education and then put
strings on a contribution for
something that has already been
studied," Mr. Levine said, noting
that a 1992 dethographic study
found the school's current loca-
tion to be amenable to growth.
A committee will
deliver a
recommendation by
spring 1995.
Not all parents were miffed.
Some parents said the move
would mean expanded opportu-
nities for their children due to the
proximity of the Jewish Com-
munity Center.
Some, like Michael Traison,
were pleased that there would be
such a major contribution, the
size of which would make it the
largest single gift to a local Jew-
ish organization in the history of
the Detroit Jewish community.
"I think it is fantastic that
there is a need and there is a
donor," said Mr. Traison, the fa-
ther of two Hillel students. "Any-
thing that is done to support
day-school education in the Di-
aspora is wonderful."
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